Iambic Monometer

I
(i.b. Reena Saini Kallat’s Saline Notations)

And she imagined herself
drawing an alpana outside her home
releasing salt with restraint
shaping infinitesmal words
she mugged
before dropping out of school
for marriage
as she knew how to sign.

She made the Kachchh-ua

II
Noe che,
“Mi Mae pi.”
Sa ro,
Loo he
bo di.
Kae cho?
Mu so,
do di.

III
Sgrr, sgrr, seurr
wouack, sthwack
chwack, schwing
shczm, shczm

oar aside

Lo!             Née
drop                id

in quotes and jutes

Ru                kappa
Chha                mu
So                so
He                hu.

IV
You try it, I said
It is an
Idiolect
/micro-dialect
:hurried,
prescient,
precocious and
upturned
like the tip of a mojadi.

V
cradled
its stiff spine in her palms
and heaved herself up
over a decorated ledge,
to recite a rhyming couplet
after a year…